Eddie Caffrey in Boyneside Radio in 1982 (courtesy of Eddie).
Returning to our Northeast Series, this is a recording of Eddie Caffrey (aka Heady Eddie) presenting his afternoon show on Boyneside Radio from Drogheda. It was made from 1420-1506 on 14th March 1980. Áine Ní Ghuidhir reads news at 3pm and there are plenty of Mother’s Day requests from listeners for the coming Sunday. The recording is in mono but is a studio copy, so there are no details of a frequency. An airchecked version was posted previously on our site here.
The cassette label giving details of the recording (courtesy Anoraks Ireland).
This recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson. More material from this collection is available on Radiowaves and the Irish Pirate Radio Archive.
Ken Regis in the Capital Radio studio c. 1982 (courtesy Ken O’Sullivan).
Cork’s Capital Radio began broadcasting in February 1979. The station was a breakaway from ABC which was starting to fragment and eventually closed. According to the Capital Radio magazine issued at Christmas 1980, Peter James, Dave Stewart, Con McParland and Pat Anderson decided that Cork needed a local station that would inform people about what was happening in the city. Con had operated his own small stations in Cork in the early 1970s and had previously been engineer for CBC, Cork’s first full-time pirate station.
The original plan was to locate Capital in Oliver Plunkett Street, but a change of plan meant that the studio was built over a chip shop next to the city library. The aerial was a long wire suspended between two poles around 50 feet apart on the roof of the building. The frequency initially used was around 1323 kHz, announced as 233 metres. Capital broadcast daily from 0800-2000 with a variety of music, although at one point it changed to a strict Top 40 format which caused some dissent amongst the station staff, so the format reverted to the original.
Capital veterans at a reunion in 2015. L-R: Dave Stewart (Jim Collins), Chris Edwards (Matt McAuliffe), Ken Regis (Ken O’Sullivan) and Tony ‘T. C.’ Clarke (Tony Whitnell) (courtesy Ken O’Sullivan).
A team from Free Radio Campaign Ireland visited Capital on 2nd September 1979 and reported that the station was now broadcasting from Tuckey Street in the city centre, above a shop. The studio and transmitter were located on the top floor of the building. The equipment consisted of a pair of disco decks and a transmitter using 813 valves and a power output of about 75 watts. The aerial was a long wire supported by two five foot poles. The sound quality was reported as ‘a little below average, but not bad by any standard’. By this time Capital was on the air from 0800-0200 and non-stop at weekends.
The frequency used varied, for example in August 1979 they were noted as 1312 kHz, in June 1980 on 1336 kHz and in December 1980 on 1308 kHz. When DX Archive visited in August 1981, Capital were on 1305 kHz and in January 1982 they were heard in Scotland during the early hours on 1314 kHz.
Ian Biggar remembers: ‘I visited Cork in March 1982 and Capital Radio was still on the air, but there had been a split which resulted in Leeside Community Radio starting transmissions on 102.3 MHz. Pat Anderson, ex-Capital was the driving force behind that. When I arrived in Cork to work on ERI in July 1982, Capital Radio was still on, but nearing its end. As far as I know, it along with Radio City, it had gone by the end of the summer’.
We bring you two short recordings of Capital, both featuring evening request shows. The first recording above is an undated clip from 1980 featured some of the Teatime Express with Tony Clarke (Tony Whitnell). The clip below is of Seán Murphy and is undated but probably also from 1980.
Thanks to Ian Biggar and Pat Galvin (Pat Anderson) for background and to Pat for the recordings.
Stairs leading to the CCLR studio on French Church Street in 1981 (courtesy DX Archive).
This recording of Cork City Local Radio (CCLR) is of Philip Knight (Johnston) on his early evening show on 24th August 1980 from 1900-1930. The show gives a sense of CCLR’s popularity at this time as there are plenty of requests and the buzz created by the DJ shines through the poor audio quality. There’s even a reference to Radio Luxembourg, which was a big influence on Irish DJs of the time. As the article below outlines, CCLR had plans in 1982 to make its style sound more American and increase its coverage area. However, the arrival of larger pirates such as South Coast Radio and ERI put smaller stations off the air and CCLR closed in late 1983.
The CCLR AM transmitter in 1983 (courtesy DX Archive).
This is a recording of part of the Sunday afternoon oldies show on Cork City Local Radio. The presenter refers to himself only as ‘BG’ and promises that the music ‘will make your valves glow or your batteries run low’. Audio quality is poor but there are a few interesting retro jingles. The recording was made from 1600-1630 on 24th August 1980 and is donated by Lillian O’Donoghue.
Fergus Dalton with Lillian McCarthy in his CBC days (photo courtesy of Lillian).
This recording of Cork City Local Radio (CCLR) is of the Light Night Extra programme presented by Fergus Dalton on Monday 21st July 1980 from 2202-2322. There are plenty of station idents and short comedy segments between records and a special request is played for loyal listener Lillian McCarthy (O’Donoghue). Fergus also previews the following day’s programmes on 261 metres.
Audio quality is poor as this recording was made by placing a tape recorder up against an AM radio. Thanks to Lillian O’Donoghue for the donation.
